p. 2 | The American Bible Society

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1916

The American Bible Society

THIS month has witnessed the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the American Bible Society. The British and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804. God has marvelously blessed this older institution in the translation and circulation of his written Word. The output of this society for the last year amounted to about ten million copies. Following the organization of the British society a number of local societies were formed in the New World. In 1816 these were consolidated into a national society known as the American Bible Society.

During the hundred years of its existence it has been a close second to the parent society, and its output of Bibles for the last year amounted to more than six million copies. “More Scriptures were issued by the society in 1914 and in 1915 in the Chinese language than in the English, the Chinese issues in 1914 being 2,049,432 as against English issues amounting to 1,862,754, reported from the Bible House for the United States. And here is still another astonishing thing: in spite of the war—or, perhaps, because of it—the issues of the American and of the British societies have increased enormously, the combined output for 1914, for instance, being more than twenty million volumes.” This output, together with that of several smaller societies and a number of commercial concerns, makes a total circulation during the last year of more than twenty-eight million copies of the Scriptures.

The official celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the American society was held in New York May 8. Other celebrations were held in various cities in the United States. The one in Washington, on May 7, was of special interest. In the early afternoon a large meeting was held at the east entrance of the Capitol. At this meeting Vice President Marshall presided and gave an address. He declared that if he could, he would take the torch from the hand of the Statue of Liberty, which guards New York harbor, and place in its stead a copy of the Bible. The Bible, he said, was emphatically the light of the world. Speaker Champ Clark followed with an address in which he expressed appreciation of the greater religious liberty and toleration which exist today compared with a century ago. This is due to the influence attending the circulation of the Scriptures. He said that the works of Shakespeare contain 555 quotations from the Bible, and that the influence of the Bible is seen in all the literature of civilized nations. Senator Wesley L. Jones of the State of Washington spoke in a similar way.

In the afternoon, at the D. A. R. Memorial Hall, a large and notable gathering was held as a part of the anniversary service. This was presided over by James Wood, president of the American Bible Society. On the platform sat President and Mrs. Wilson; Vice President Marshall; Secretary of Commerce Redfield; Secretary of the Navy Daniels; Rev. Arthur Taylor, secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and other leading Christian workers. The address of President Wilson was the chief feature of these exercises. The President bore forceful testimony to the value of the Scriptures of truth. We quote the following statements:—

“It is a very interesting circumstance—perhaps I might add a disappointing circumstance—that the world should have so late wakened to its obligation and opportunity in respect of the spread of the Scripture. We are celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the American Bible Society, and there are other Bible societies older than it, but one hundred years is a very small part of the history of Christianity, and this great Bible is the main vehicle of Christianity. Widespread, systematic missionary endeavor is also modern and recent as gauged by the measures of history; and it is with a sort of feeling that we stand at the youth, at the beginning, of the hope of what may be accomplished by these means when we think of this great work and of its rapid progress and spread.”

“Those who weave together the thought and the ideals and the conceptions of mankind also weave together its action. They control the motive forces of humanity if they can control these things. One of the things—almost the only thing—that separates races and nations of men from one another is difference of thought, difference of point of view, prompted by difference of tradition, differences of experience, differences in instruction. If all the world had a common literature, if all the world had drunk at the same source of inspiration and suggestion, many lines of division would never have been created, and many would now disappear; and those who spread the Scripture are engaged, as it were, in drawing the world together under the spell of one body of literature, which belongs to no one race, to no one civilization, to no one time in the history of the world, but whose appeal is universal, which searches and illuminates all hearts alike. In proportion as men yield themselves to the kindly light of the gospel, they are bound together in the bonds of mutual understanding and assured peace. . . .

“So that to my mind the colporteurs, the agents of the Bible society, the men who, tramping through countrysides or traveling by every sort of conveyance in every sort of land, carry with them little cargoes of books containing the word of God, and spread them, seem like the shuttles in a great loom that is weaving the spirits of men together.”

Hearty appreciation of the work of the society was voiced by all the speakers. Surely the distribution of the printed Word should enlist the hearty cooperation of every disciple of the Master.